How shall we put this?

Delicately, of course.

Republicans “of color” aren’t really members of a protected class of minorities. They’re more like honorary white guys sporting great tans; regardless of ethnicity or origin, regardless of their personal tragedies and triumphs, hell, regardless of merit, they don’t much count as having “wonderful American stories.” That spot is reserved for minorities who buy into the idea that ethnicity defines political affiliation. Respectable minorities simply don’t vote GOP.

I prefer the Condi Rice view: “I found a party that sees me as an individual, not as part of a group.” Though, since I actually am a white male, my opinions on subjects concerning race and gender are immediately discounted. No such requirement of experience has stopped numerous folks of explaining to me just how privileged I am to be white (and quite particularly male) in the USA.

Or to put it simply, and as an example: I’m not allowed to speak with any authority on the black experience in America because I haven’t lived that experience and don’t have the proper frames of reference. Neither am I allowed to speak with authority on the white experience in America precisely because I’ve lived it and I cannot be objective. I’m guessing that if I had the right opinions, though, I might be granted a waiver.

I’d be nicer about it all, but I’m suffering an empathy deficit right now. Seems to be clouding my judgement.

Is it just me or does the post-racial America seem at least as screwed up and dishonest as it ever did before? Perhaps more so because we seem so tremendously focused on racial issues instead of matters of merit.

But what the hell do I know? I’m just a white guy who has lived a sheltered, shallow life not given to the formation of any great wisdom.

I’d try to duplicate the effort, but my ex-wife got the Legos in the divorce settlement.

Sad for me.

The path to national prosperity is lined with ensuring that people don’t want to do business with you.

For some reason.

The Passion of MIley.

Beheheheh.

Enjoy.

I’ve been un-blogging of late. I’ve been busy, I’ve been cranky, and I’ve been tired of pawing over the same well-turned earth that’s kept me occupied for the last five or six years of my life.

It gets a little tiresome after a while.

But every day just gets me crankier, hoping like hell that things (in a national, political sense) would turn a corner and we’d be heading down a Clintonian path rather than Sir Don Ryder. To anyone who has looked at what happened to the British auto industry after the government took a heavy-handed role in running the affairs of British Leyland, it should be terrifying to read these words:

Obama Halves Chrysler’s Planned Marketing Budget.

And General Motors, heading down the same path as Chrysler, should be terrified about the future of their company.

If you haven’t studied up on BLMC, now would be a good time because it looks like our current government plans on traveling a very similar path. Trace the paths of Jaguar, MG, Triumph, and Austin Healyey to see what happens when the government starts making decisions for auto companies. Even the latter day successes (Mini, for example) were bought up and are now run by others (BMW in that particular instance). Hopefully that isn’t the fate of GM and Chrysler, but I wouldn’t put my money on it either by buying stock or buying one of their cars.

Just sayin’.

Without going much into details, here’s a little story from my last week.

A bit ago, I decided that it would be nice if I had a newer car. Much as I love the old one, it seemed time for something different. Given my debt load--which is significantly higher than it should be--I wasn’t sure what kind of loan I was going to come away with. Would the limit be high enough for what I wanted? Would the rate be low enough to keep me feeling that happy, unscrewed feeling? I was pretty sure that the answer to one or the other was going to end up being “no.”

I was very wrong. In fact, I had pre-qualified myself with Capital One auto loans (they had carried my last car loan) and been given a rate of 5.76%, which sounded like a solid deal to me. The guy who helped us with our loan at Tynan’s VW here in Aurora looked over my credit report promised that he could do better. He did. I ended up with a JP Morgan/Chase loan at just 4.99%

Not bad.

I’m not writing this just to be writing, though, there’s an actual point. The point is that, if you were thinking about a new car but worried that the current credit climate might shut you out of a decent deal, you might want to take a look. The prices are low and there are good deals to be had (especially with the new cars, although I chose the 2008 to keep my payments down and get immediately past the massive depreciation that comes in the first few years of car ownership). 

The Nuggets didn’t like their performance in the last playoff game in New Orleans, and they proved the point tonight with a big win. A really big win. In fact, it was the biggest win in a playoff game since 1956. The Nuggets beat the Hornets 121-63, a record-tying effort that matched a playoff game more than five decades old.

The Nuggets didn’t see much of their starters in the last period of the game and, aside from a few easy threes, worked more to eat up time than they did to score points through that stretch.

The Nuggets were fabulous tonight, but they were helped along by a Hornets team that grew lethargic as the game went on. You’d be hard pressed to say that the home crowd got their money’s worth in that last period with a New Orleans team that was hardly even trying. Given how scrappy they were early, how aggressive they were through the first half, I’m sure it was a disappointing end of the game for their home fans.

Basketball doesn’t get much uglier, but it was fun for Nuggets fans to see the team claim a 3-1 lead in the series. It’s even better when folks realize that the Nuggets are flirting with progressing to the second round of the playoffs for the first time in over a decade.

But here’s the really funny bit: when I went to my Yahoo page to check the box score with something like five and a half minutes left in the game, they had already listed the score as a final. When I clicked form my page to the box score a few minutes later, they updated the score but still had it listed as a final. Apparently, while the NBA doesn’t have a mercy rule, the Yahoo sports page does.

Ouch.

I wouldn’t count on seeing the Hornets quitting in Denver for game five the same way they did tonight. In fact, I’m guessing they’ll play a vigorous and aggressive game just to reclaim a shred of dignity, because this game absolutely had to hurt.

Congratulations to the Nuggets on a big win where the entire team played brilliantly.

I got an email from a friend today telling me about the Second Wind Fund, an organization that is working to prevent teen suicide by ensuring that at-risk kids have access to counseling and therapy. It’s a great cause backed up by people who are committed to making a positive change in kids’ lives.

Organizations like this exist because of the generosity of folks like you and me. And while I’m not doing a fundraiser for the folks, if you happen to live in the Denver area, I would like you to know about this small organization that could always use volunteers and donors who believe in their cause. I personally prefer to give--both donations and time--to local charities because I trust them to run leaner and more effectively than the bigger charities (and don’t even get me started on the inefficiency of trusting the government for a handout). If you have that same instinct, check out their Web site to get an idea of who they are.

Thanks to BC (The Anonymous Tipster) for pointing the Second Wind Fund out to me. I might never have heard of them otherwise.

Consider this, unquestionably, a critique. Consider it, too, a series of predictions (of a sort).

Good. Good athlete, good skills, good pick, good guy.

Too expensive. Decent player, potential starter, but not worth trading a first round pick next year to pick up a roll of the dice in the second round this year.

Promising. Potentially a very good player. While there is a lot to pick over this time through, I’m going to give this one some time to grow on me.

I just don’t get it. Why Knowshon Moreno? Last year the Broncos ended up with a surprisingly decent rushing attack considering all of the injuries that they sustained. What was amazing was how productive many of those rushers were when they played--and the kind of injury plague that they had last season isn’t likely to strike again. Aside from that, the Broncos brought in four expensive running backs in the offseason to compete with those guys from last season. So, heading into the draft, the Broncos had JJ Arrington, Correll Buckhalter, Andre Hall, Peyton Hillis, LaMont Jordan, Andrew Pinnock, Ryan Torain, and Selvin Young on the roster. They let PJ Pope and Michael Pittman go in the offseason and Tatum Bell hasn’t been re-signed after stepping in as a last-minute (and damned decent considering the lack of time to prepare for his role) fill-in for all of the injured backs last season.

There is a lot of talent on that list. The Broncos weren’t a team in search of an offense (although a little more scoring and a little less of the red-zone give-aways would have helped); this was a team that was near the bottom in pretty much every defensive category. It wasn’t just bad coaching, either. There was a serious lack of talent on that side of the ball. Every Broncos fan who wasn’t saying a prayer for a trade up to get Sanchez was probably sitting back and hoping that the first few rounds went to shore up that defense. Using a first rounder on a running back--even one who sounds as talented as this--just wasn’t what we were hoping for.

Don’t imagine that I think Moreno will be a bust because I’m guessing he’s going to be a heck of a player. I just think that the team had much bigger needs that could have been addressed with this pick and that their current talent is more talented than McDaniels seems to believe. The comments at the link above are significantly more positive than mine, but I just don’t see it.

As an aside, and speaking of Broncos cast-offs, teams who are looking for quality back-ups might do well to consider picking up Tatum Bell. He played hard and smart last season. Behind a good line with the right scheme, Bell can still be a player in the NFL.

For that matter, Jamie Winborn should be playing somewhere, too. I was surprised when the Broncos let him this off season. He’s a high energy, big effort, smart linebacker who might not have the same physical skills as some of the top names in the league, but who makes a great back-up who showed a talent for big plays and getting himself into good position to make plays. And, not to be unkind, but he was far more productive than a few names on the Broncos current roster. Like Jarvis Moss and Tim Crowder, for instance.

In fact, Winborn had more tackles last year (99 with 74 solo) than both Jarvis Moss and Tim Crowder had in the last two seasons. Combined.

Now, back to the draft…

This is out of order, but what the hell? Of all the moves and all the picks, this one puzzles and worries me the most.

First, the Broncos weren’t really in dire need of a new tight end. Second, they traded their third round picks to move up to the second round to pick this guy--and I think he would still have been on the board in the third if they had waited. In fact, he well have been available in the fourth round and (by his own admission) he was thinking he might have to go the free agency route to find a team. He wasn’t the only one surprised that he was picked so high.

He didn’t have a distinguished career, he doesn’t have a history of being much of a receiving threat, and, yes, he can block but so can every one else on the Broncos squad. One of the great things about Shanahan was how he preached that everyone blocks in the running game and blocks hard. This just wasn’t their biggest need and they gave up their two picks in the third to get him when they didn’t have to. Let me put this as plainly as I can, even if he is a great pick, they didn’t need to give anything away to get their guy--it was a royally bad decision that leaves them as spectators until the fourth round and watching talent slip away that could have helped with their real needs.

The silver lining is that McDaniels seems to have picked some good citizens, some high-effort guys, and all these guys could all be starters.

But he didn’t plug all the defensive holes that most fans and experts hoped to see filled. Is this a sign of arrogance, bad strategy, or some strange genius that the rest of us will catch onto slowly over the course of the next two seasons?